Following the match reported a few days ago at reference 1, a return match which turned the tables. I won by a modest margin and we broke the 600 point barrier.
I started off rather slowly, with far too many vowels, going so far as to turn in all my tiles at one point. And BH scored a remarkable coup with 'quiz' middle right. Nevertheless, I had enough lesser coups of my own to stay ahead.
Longman's being quite forgiving with words like 'ho', 'ha' and 'er'. Much more so in that regard than OED. On the other hand, it excludes lots of proper, but obscure old words which have fallen out of use.
A day which started with my first (slow) walk over West Hill - finding that most of the trolleys we had passed on leaving the station the previous evening were still there - and which had ended at Stamford Green Pond.
Two swans back on the water and two Egyptian geese on the grass. A modest number of other geese, ducks, coots and moorhens round about, on and off the water. Which was a bit lower and a bit clearer than it had been and I thought I spotted some fish sign.
PS 1: one of the trolleys, from Waitrose, was distinguished by having no maker's or seller's plate on the side of the basket. It had what looked to me like new wheels, so perhaps a Wanzl trolley which had passed through the hands of a refurbisher.
PS 2: interesting piece in the FT this morning, Tuesday, about the Ukraine at reference 2. From which various more or less stray thoughts arise.
First, Kushner being in a position of power is a piece of gross nepotism. On the other hand, he appears to be active, able and doing good work on the Ukraine. And from Trump's point of view, he gets stuff done for which he (Trump) has neither the energy or aptitude - while being completely dependent on Trump for his power and position. He is in no position to rock the boat in the way of Burnham or Streeting here. Is it any wonder that our politicians like to delegate power to special advisors and civil servants, rather than doing any real work with what are supposed to be their colleagues?
How long ago is that ministers did any real policy work themselves? One gets the impression from the novels of Trollope that they still were in the second half of the nineteenth century.
From where I jump to Farage. Should he reach No.10, who would do the work for which he has neither the energy or aptitude? Is he going to be invaded by immigrants from the Conservative Party?
Second, Putin may be using the war in the Ukraine to soak up the blood and energy of large numbers of hard-to-employ young men from the wilds of provincial Russia, who might otherwise get restive with the prevailing poverty. And the cold of Asian winters. One might have said the same thing about the UK with the young men of Wales, Scotland and Ireland around 1800.
From where I jump to Trump and his ICE. Soaking up the energy of large numbers of hard-to-employ young men.
Maybe we need to be pouring money into training young people.
References
Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/01/scrabble.html.
Reference 2: In Ukraine, it’s all about the land: Trilateral peace talks seem promising, but territory remains a major obstacle - Gideon Rachman, Financial Times - 2026.
Reference 3: https://www.ice.gov/.
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